THis morning's Post refers to a belated letter I spied thanks to Nathaniel Tan (@jelas.info) -- another Young&Articulate I befirended via blogosphere who has taken to working fulltime for a political cause he believes in, via Part Keadilan Rakyat. Earlier, another Y&A Jed Yoong (@2020freelunch.blogspot.com) has taken a similar path, via DAP though I tried to "mislead" her before D-day to DSAI's abode, but to no avail!:)
Nevertheless, as long as these Y&A sustain their fight for a Better Malaysia and not get easily lulled into the easy way out by joining the Barisan Nasional, I am okay. Even if PAS be thy choice before UMNO, MCA and MIC, I am okay, because YOU ARE FIGHTING FOR CHANGE.
To those who think the BN Government for the past 50 yaers has not been performing up to expectations -- with loud admissions of Corruption, of Breaches of the Law and Transprancy and Accountability in Governance -- it is only logical to lend your Voice and Weight to any ovement striving for Change and Improvement. There comes a time you have to take sides in partisan politics because that sttep is inevitable once you come of Voting Age (21).
But also I can live with people who think they can enjoy the largesse via UMNO,and to a lesser extent, some peanuts or kacang outih via MCA, and MIC or any of the other mosquito BN component parties (14 minus 3 equals 11 to pick from, I can't name the rest because I plead ignorance, especially with Sabah- and Sarawak-based parties who are treated as second, third or fourth cousins by Big Brother occupying the main seats of power at PWTC or Putrajaya. Of course once in a while if you are a Patrick Lim, you get to enjoy Eat, Drink and Be Merry highlife in Perth by the Swanee Ribber... but that's Raja Petra's terrortry I won't r=tread too mush into!:)
Now back to Nat Tan (I tease this young fellow that he's my palindrome to overcome any conundrom!) -- his Post linked to an exchange of Letters to the Editor at Malaysiakini.com which I'd like to add my 3sen worth today.
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"Opposition - we’ll prove them wrong
Alexis
Apr 6, 07 3:04pm
I refer to Manjit Bhatia’s article Rock the boat? Not Malaysians, no sir....
It is interesting how an outsider can speak about my home country as if he knows it better than any one of us. This is not to say Manjit Bhatia is not allowed to comment, of course, bearing in mind he is an academician and a writer. Any criticisms launched against my country should always be taken in constructive light because surely Manjit cares enough for this country to write so extensively on it.
However, I have decided to give my two cents worth as a rakyat of Malaysia - a position I would like to see rival and level Manjit's.
I agree with Nathaniel Tan's letter. I am not fond of the government, neither am I an opposition member. I am just an ordinary citizen, earning a decent pay and living life under the current circumstances the best I can.
All this does not mean my country is doomed to hell because the rakyat is politically apathetic. It does not mean our votes will be wasted on the opposition simply because BN has gerrymandered enough to guarantee wins during the general elections in the country. What matters is that there are people who care enough to read malaysiakini, attend DAP forums, read a PKR leaflet or eat a PAS mooncake.
What matters is that people are willing to educate others and share common histories. What matters most is that many aspire and work towards moving forward.
The people matter the most - more than anything. Let's strip away political theories and the level of education that one might use as a benchmark - the kampong man has little thought for those. Considering the very basic as to what the rakyat wants, I would say we want a credible government, a just system and a good standard of living. We want fellow Malaysians to treat everybody like a brother and a sister.
I don't think Tan naively sees a citizen's bottom-up strategies as an easy struggle or that changes will happen overnight. He merely advocates for people to talk less, act more. While Manjit advocates giving up because nothing is going to happen anyway because the country is beyond redemption.
I'm a Malaysian and I respect a foreigner's views. But if I were to pick between hope and being a defeatist, I would pick hope. Between top-down change and bottom-up struggle, I pick the latter (it is a more plausible action anyway since Manjit has said the top elite will ensure that they remain in power).
Between a young Malaysian who wants what best for the country and dares to share it versus an Australian academician with exclamations that the country is without direction - I think it is clear what my preference is.
Thank you for your views, Manjit. You become the reason why young Malaysians given time, energy and will, will rise in the coming years to campaign for change - to make Malaysia better and prove you wrong.
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DESIDERATA:
I've read Manjit's letters at Mkini often enought to infer he's likely to be a an academic, yes, a good writer ...Previously I thought he was a Malaysian holding a PR permit in Australia, hence his vociferous writings on Malaysia, but now that I know he's NOT a Malaysian, thank God for that!
I also salute Nat Tan's and the letter-writer he referenced (Alexis) for their enthusiastic and clear thoughts of progresing NegaraKu with commitment and conviction by staying back and fight.
While I also stated that ...
But also I can live with people who think they can enjoy the largesse via UMNO,and to a lesser extent, some peanuts or kacang outih via MCA, and MIC or any of the other mosquito BN component parties...
I CAN'T STAND MALYSIANS WHO HAVE SWITCHED THEIR LOYALTIES (at least partially by adopting PR status in a foreign country like Australia, UK or USA) WHO CAN ONLY SEE MALAYSIA IN A NEGASTIVE LIGHT.
They constantly sound pessimistic (like Manjit), and yet are vociferous in their mouthings to an audience largely resident at home in NegaraKu, I sometimes wonder what's the beef to these people?
Malaysians need hope and motiovation to drive them to greater things.
We need the DAP, the PKR and PAS to offer an alternative to form a Government different to the only Government we know, BN.
Voices like Manjit's do more damage to the Malaysian psyche than benefit because we indeed have our complaints, over grievances, our outrage even (Especially against the collosal Government's wastages and seepages, a big portion due to Corruption!) -- but we also STAY BACK HERE TO STYRUGGLE, TO STRIVE FOR CHANGE.
I've got sick and tired listening to some "friends" who day in day out berate the Government because they already hold PR in Australia. Yet they shuttle between the two countries -- getting the best of both worlds. Some citizens want the cakle and eat it too. To these socalled "fRiends to Malaysia", I say "Drop the R!"
We can do with less academic posturings and lectures from ivory towers when Malaysians who hold a foreign passport just in case -- that includes a former Group GEIC and now an SC board director, and some former Senator now Malaysian deputy minister... -- there is a common Malay phrase -- MASUK GELANGGANG, will you? Or buzz off, willya!
G'Day.
PeAce to fellow Malaysians Awe,
especially to Y&A who Stay and Fight.
UPDATEd @12.55 :
To be comprehensive, I have retraced Mkini's letters relevant to the issue and reprised them here. Luckily The Letter's Section is free, like your theSun daily but for the latter, you still need to get to 7ELEVEN. While for the former, you visit Desi's, lazybummer thou art. Buy me that Teh-See!
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Rock the boat? Not Malaysians, no sir ...
Manjit Bhatia
Apr 4, 07 12:55pm
Nathaniel Tan says the so-called debate between malaysiakini reader Umar Mukhtar and I is too personalised for attacking each other, and rather emotive. I have to say it's quite remarkable and fanciful for Tan to think that politics and emotions can be mutually exclusive. Perhaps he should tell this to Julius Caesar, Saddam Hussein, George Bush, or indeed Dr Mahathir Mohamad and Abdullah Ahmad Badawi, whose ongoing war of words via the local media is so vituperative that it makes the discussion between Mukhtar and I seem innocuous by comparison.
Tan then asks me for whom I would vote ‘if’ I were a Malaysian. I find this bemusing, to say the least, because I am not a Malaysian (I shall never become one in a million years even if Prime Minister Abdullah pays me). When one is not a Malaysian citizen, one therefore cannot vote in any Malaysian election. So it's hardly a question that bears any kind of relevance for me.
Nevertheless, elsewhere, Tan offers some interesting points worthy of response and discussion. His chief argument is that, if Malaysians want change, they ought to become direct participants in a political party so that, if change from above does not materialise (for the better), then change from below, from within opposition political parties, could prove more effective. In some ways I agree with the proposition. However, as I have been suggesting over the past week or so, I don't think it'll work – ever.
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Criticise opposition but be open to its possibilities
Nathaniel Tan
Apr 2, 07 4:38pm
I refer to the debate between Manjit Bhatia and Umar Mukhtar.
The personal attacks and emotions aside, this debate highlights once again a popular notion that Malaysians are caught between an evil BN and a ‘hopeless’ Opposition.
My question to Bhatia would be - if he was Malaysian, who would he vote for?
If the BN is ‘evil’, and cannot be changed but from the top, that makes them an unwise choice.
Why not vote for the Opposition? Because they apparently have no ‘ideologies’ or ‘policy alternatives’? Because there is no hope that they'll change the government or even change themselves?
Some things are easier to change than others. I have long considered the BN leviathan to be too corrupt and too racist to change. These qualities are all but formally institutionalised.
Some parties are considered too mono-ethnic to ever represent Malaysia. This, too, is difficult to change, but perhaps not entirely impossible (unless you are Umno, MCA or MIC). Different parties are also at different stages, in this regard.
But if one refuses to support the Opposition because of an alleged lack of a detailed vision (leaving aside for now the question of when a commitment to integrity and ethnic equality ceased to become legitimate policy alternatives) or not having enough strength to change the government, then I feel the reasoning is slightly flawed.
If people feel the Opposition can't see the trees for the woods, why not join up and start loudly sketching out some of those ‘trees’ for the Opposition? I imagine that kind of work and input would be welcome.
I get the feeling that many people who have truly given up on the Opposition have not spent too much time working with the Opposition before. Mental pictures of ineptitude, dictatorialness or naivety appear to be informed either by the mainstream media or other propaganda.
The opposition is wide open with opportunities to play a part in determining its nature. If you want change, get involved and have your say. I refuse to believe someone who says it's impossible without having tried.
Believing that the Opposition is a lost cause because they don't have enough resources or people to affect change while washing one's hand of that same Opposition is even more illogical and counterproductive. Here, Gandhi's ‘be the change you wish to see in the world’ comes to mind.
BN is only invincible if we keep telling ourselves they are. Have a little faith, dare to dream a little. That's where great progress always begins.
Criticise the opposition as much as you like, but if at all possible, do it with sincere, constructive intent. I'm open to suggestions, but I still unable to see a truly productive third way.
DESI: IF I WERE TO ALSO REPRISE UMAR MUKHTAR's letter, we will have to stay here for another 24, you don't want to do that, do you?
Let's meet at The Lake View Club on May 19, 2007, can? I'd offer thee a cuppa of tehtarik if I can find the tea powder in the Bar!:) Lust word typed in @1.00pm!
Chicky adiue in breaking my lustr word pledge @1.00pm, now it's 1.22pm!
I saw the following news headline (Where? you dare ask me, Desi says: Find out thyself!)
"Gov't mulls commission for religious disputes "
Apr 11, 07 10:50am ,
the halo above my head says:
I must go register quickly as a DISPUTER, get that 30% to help my reaching that 20milliuon:)
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